Scientists Cure Type 2 Diabetes in Mice

Manystudies have resulted in curingrodents of type 1 and 2 diabetes and another one has done just that for type 2 diabetes. Scientists do not yet understand how this cure works but think it will be easy to test in humans.

Researchers found that the injection removed all symptoms of type 2 diabetes in the rodents for months. As reported by ArsTecnica, the injection of FGF1 seems to “reset powerful neural networks that can control the amount of sugar in the blood.”

Researchers Don’t Know Why Cure Works

Since the FGF1 shot didn’t cause the rodents to eat less through a lowered appetite, researchers don’t understand how the FGF1 worked to remove type 2 diabetes symptoms.

FGF1, which is already found in the human brain, is a growth hormone protein in a family of growth hormones involved in cell growth, tissue repair, tumor growth and embryonic development. FGF1 plays an important role in the development of new blood vessels and organs.

ArsTecnica reports that the authors conclude that this finding “unmasks the brain’s inherent capacity to induce sustained diabetes remission,” and that they already know how to safely get FGF1 to the human brain meaning that a follow up clinical trial in humans should not be difficult.

The researchers from University of Washington injected a single intracerebroventricular shot of FGF1 at a dose one-tenth that needed for anti diabetic efficacy. This shot stopped the genetically engineered moderate case of type 2 diabetes in both rats and mice. The curing or anti-diabetic effect of this shot was not due to weight loss and didn’t increase the risk of low blood sugars, either. The FGF1 shot also didn’t boost insulin production.

A New Way to Treat Type 2 Diabetes in the Future?

Researchers suggest that the liver increased it’s ability to breakdown glucose and it’s ability to store sugar longterm. Skeletal muscles also seemed to absorb more glucose. This is supposedly the first time “such a sugar-clearing method” has been discovered.

The blood sugar normalizing effect of the shot took one week and remained for over 4 months, which is as long as the researchers were able to track the blood rodents’ blood sugars.

ArsTecnica reports that “Such dramatic results have only been seen in diabetic patients that have undergone certain bariatric surgeries. When the researchers tested out the FGF1 brain shot in rats, they found the same results.”

Rodents with severe type 2 diabetes were not cured by the shot because there was no insulin signaling available as the link “between FGF1’s brain activity and the novel un-sweetening system in the liver and muscles.”

Dr. Ronald Evans of the Gene Expression Laboratory and lead researcher of the study told the Salk Institute for Biological Studies, “We want to move this to people by developing a new generation of FGF1 variants that solely affect glucose and not cell growth,” and he added that “If we can find the perfect variation, I think we will have on our hands a very new, very effective tool for glucose control.”